Every time there has been a shut down over the past 30 years, I have been required to continue working. No one gets paid until the shutdown is resolved, and once it has been resolved, everyone receives back pay regardless of whether they worked or sat at home (non-essential). Essential workers get paid late and non-essential workers get a paid vacation.

There have been twice as many threatened shut downs as actual shut downs and shut downs are a political game of chicken between the Executive and the Legislature where the only real losers are the tax payers.

25% across the board cut in FTE for every government agency. Exempt uniformed military billets from these cuts. Accomplish the cuts through attrition. If the cuts aren't across the board, the cries of favoritism and discrimination will tie up the cuts for years and Congress will waffle out of making the cuts. Cut non-payroll spending of all government agencies, across the board by 50%. These cuts would remain in place until the federal debt was eliminated. The federal government takes in more money than it ever has. If we cut spending in a meaningful way, the debt could be eliminated within our lifetime. We owe this type of sacrifce to our children's children, who should not be required to pay the interest for our excessive spending.

Moving people around and renaming agencies is just a shell game and rarely results in streamlining. See 22 legacy agencies becoming DHS for example. The best method of streamlining IMO is don't create new agencies and eliminate non-essential agencies completely. This takes time and the Dept of Education, as an example will take decades to dismantle.

I wish the current President well in his efforts to reform government. It is a Sisyphean task.